Alex Mayyasi writes:On January 15, 2009, geese struck and disabled the engines of US Airways Flight 1549, forcing captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger to perform an emergency landing on the Hudson River. The smooth landing resulted in no casualties and remarkable pictures of the passengers and crew waiting on the plane’s wings in front of the Manhattan skyline. The “Miracle on the Hudson” received heavy media coverage that lifted Sullenberger to American hero status.

Just as he received assistance landing Flight 1549, Sullenberger had a co-pilot working on his book. On the cover of Highest Duty, just below Sullenberger’s name, it reads “With Jeffrey Zaslow.” Zaslow, who passed away in 2012, was a journalist and author whose name also appears on the cover of the memoirs of professor Randy Pausch and US Representative Gabrielle Giffords. He was, in other words, the person who most likely wrote the book: the ghostwriter.

Writers like Zaslow represent an open secret in book publishing and any content with a byline – that the title of author is often more of an executive position rather than an indication of who wrote the words on the page. Dictionaries define an “author” as either “a person who has written something” or “a person who starts or creates something, such as a plan or idea.” Readers assume the first, while publishers understand it’s the second.

In academia, professors come up with research ideas and analyze results, but research assistants and graduate students write the actual paper describing the outcome. Business executives drive the direction of projects but leave underlings to research and write reports that bear the executives’ names. Marketplaces called content mills allow companies to cheaply fill their websites with ghostwritten articles published under the name of a staff member. And nearly every book authored by a celebrity or politician is ghostwritten by a professional writer.

In book publishing, ghostwriters are no longer complete secrets. Many receive a byline and the more dignified title of contributor or even co-author. Investigating how the industry works, it’s hard to tell whether ghostwriting is becoming more common or just slightly more transparent. Many a writer has worried that publishers’ search for profits will lead them to denigrate all writers to ghostwriting status and embrace anything attached to a celebrity. But that fear seems misguided. Readers don’t seem ready to give up their romanticized view of authors anytime soon.

Ghostwriting 101

When a nonfiction author decides to write a book, she starts hunting for a story and writes up a book proposal. When a celebrity decides to pen her memoirs, she calls her agent.

The motivations for that call may differ. Many celebrities see dollar signs in book publishing. Authors receive an advance when they sign a book deal – essentially a guarantee on the expected royalties from book sales.1 Hillary Clinton received an $8 million advance for her memoir while Bill Clinton inked $15 million. Agents often auction the right to publish the book or memoir of a major figure to drive up the price. A bidding war between three publishing houses over Angelina Jolie’s memoir is rumored to have driven her advance up to $50 million. To avoid this, publishing houses sometimes make a large “pre-emptive bid” to secure a celebrity’s book without facing an auction.

But money is not the only reason famous people decide to “write” books. They can be a public relations strategy – a chance for a someone to boost her profile, tell her side of a controversy, or express a more rounded personality than the one described by the media. Joel Hochman of Arbor Books, which advertises itself as a “world-class ghostwriting company,” told us:

“Not every celebrity gets the chance to tell [her] story in a few hundred pages. They’re usually described in soundbites. It’s really about reputation repair.”

Peter Osnos, who edited or published the memoirs of two former presidents, explained that while money is a factor, retiring public servants “generally have a full life of experience that they want to share.” This may or may not mean justifying their actions in office.

In the case of politicians and business executives, the primary motivation for writing a book is often to demonstrate expertise. Hillary Clinton’s upcoming memoir about her time as secretary of state is speculated to be in the service of a presidential run in 2016. Mitt Romney wrote a book about his “vision for America”to prepare for the 2012 election.2

Once a publisher has bought the rights to a celebrity’s book or life story, the next step is to find the person who will actually write it.

Jerrold Jenkins, president of a publishing services firm that has ghostwriters on staff, describes ghostwriters as falling along four tiers. The lowest tier, which his company rarely hires, are found on massive freelancing websites like Elance and earn $5,000 to $15,000 for a book. Writers at the next level have some book experience that earns them $15,000 to $30,000. These ghostwriters sign nondisclosure agreements promising to never reveal that they worked on a book. Only scrupulously honest clients thank the ghostwriter for his or her “valuable contribution” in the acknowledgements.

Excellent ghostwriters who may have even written a bestseller earn $30,000 to $50,000 per project while a small elite with a track record of handling multi-million dollar memoirs command from $50,000 to more than a million. They may also receive a share of the royalties and writing credit.

William Novak – who launched his career as an elite ghostwriter with perhaps the most commercially successful memoir of all time in Iacocca, the autobiography of American car magnate Lee Iacocca – earns anywhere from 10% to 50% of the advance. Top ghostwriters like Novak are given titles like “co-author” or “collaborator” and have their name on the cover. The publisher of George Stephanopoulos’s memoir touted hiring Novak as if hiring an elite ghostwriter were a mark of prestige.

Authors literally entrust the ghostwriter with his or her life story, so the two usually meet to check for rapport before signing a contract. But with top ghostwriters, the client is also auditioning. Beyond monetary considerations, Novak cited the agreeableness of the client, his feeling that he can add value, and the book’s potential as important considerations. “Everyone thinks they have a book in them,” Novak told us. “But most of us have only a chapter or two. I’ve turned down a few clients whose stories I didn’t think could fill a book.”

One of the biggest surprises of the industry is how fast ghostwriters can produce a book. “I had a book come together in a series of 10 interviews – one per chapter,” ghostwriter and co-writer Sally Collings told us. “Each interview took an hour.” The entire project still took four months, and some ghostwritten books take a year of full-time work. But this means that ghostwriters can often write multiple books a year.

Writing someone’s autobiography is also surprisingly impersonal. When William Novak ghostwrote his first memoir, he assumed that he would be Lee Iacocca’s “surrogate son.” He discovered that the norm is less than 50 hours of interviews. The process starts with the author providing relevant written materials. A series of interviews follows. The reticent only do phone calls and email; the feverishly busy fly the ghostwriter around the world to meet in airports and in between board meetings. For a major project, ghostwriters also interview as many as several dozen people who know the author. Once the ghostwriter has a draft, the two make adjustments over email and phone calls.

There are examples of celebrities who expect the ghostwriter to come up with the entire story. (English pop culture celebrity Kerry Katona admitted to never readingher “autobiography.”) But the author usually has an intended message and knows the narrative or major arguments. “Every now and then we have an author who doesn’t have a lot of content and we do additional research and the ghostwriter goes above and beyond,” Jerrold Jenkins of the Jenkins Group told us. “But it’s rare.”

It’s the ghostwriter’s job to ask probing questions to capture that narrative. For most ghostwriters and publishers, part of the ghostwriter’s professionalism is understanding and accepting that she is writing someone else’s story. As William Novak told us, “It took me awhile to understand that I am writing a book about how [the client] sees him or herself. I represent what they remember, their views.”

Ghostwriters tend to be former journalists or nonfiction authors themselves. Part of learning the trade means learning to adopt the client’s voice. “The first draft of Iacocca was rejected for being ‘too well written,’” Novak told us. “I had to write like Iacocca was talking to you.” Collings described the industry as very niche, with writers specializing in areas like business memoir or American history. But the elite are sought for any project. Publisher Peter Osnos described Novak as a talented ghostwriter because he “is the equivalent of a great character actor – someone who has the ability to subsume his own character, no matter how interesting the part that he’s playing.”

As the majority of ghostwriters sign nondisclosure agreements, it’s impossible to know exactly how many books are ghostwritten each year. The president of Arbor Books, which furnishes ghostwriters, told us, “From what I’ve seen, I’d imagine a billion dollar industry.” The president of a similar firm estimated that at least 25% of the New York Times nonfiction bestseller list is ghostwritten and that when a celebrity or politician is involved, “It’s nearly 100%.”

The Economic Logic of Ghostwriting

Ghostwriters exist for the same reason that Bill Gates doesn’t mow his own lawn: It’s just not worth his time. As the president of the Jenkins Group put it to us:

“The appeal is pretty clear. If you are an executive making $10 million a year, will you really stop working for two to three months to write a book? Or if you’re an athlete?”

Celebrities are also paying for a higher quality of writing than they could ever achieve. Every year, dozens of books are authored by celebrities, politicians, and business executives who haven’t written anything much longer than an email since college. Most publishers will push a celebrity or politician who actually wants to write his or her own book toward a ghostwriter. Books written by celebrities usually end up in the hands of an “editor” who rewrites the entire manuscript.

From a publisher’s perspective, securing the rights to publish the book of a celebrity is the closest thing to a sure thing in book publishing. This is important because, like television executives and venture capitalists, book publishers are in the hits business. Each Harry Potter pays for many other books that don’t sell well and register a loss.

Publishers do work with young talents in the hopes that they’ll develop into the next Stephen King or Malcolm Gladwell. But especially in nonfiction, publishers prefer authors with a “platform”: a history of written publication and recognition in their field. This author was shocked when an agent sent him book proposal guidelines for a nonfiction book that asked for as much information on marketing strategy and the author’s personal distribution channels as on the book’s story. The guidelines even suggested that authors without a “strong platform” reconsider trying to publish a book.

Publishers want authors with name recognition and the ability to sell their own book because selling a book by a new name – even if it’s a great book – is so uncertain. Since it is difficult for a consumer to know whether she will like a book before she buys it, consumers buy the same authors again and again. When J.K. Rowling released a mystery novel under a pseudonym, it failed to sell despite good reviews. When word got out that Rowling was the author, it became an instant bestseller.

In contrast, selling a book authored by a celebrity is easy. “There’s certainly a high correlation between fame or infamy and commercial success,” Novak told us, adding: “And I’ve made a living off that correlation.” Household names who will drive media interest are as close to a guarantee of strong sales as publishers get outside of finding a J.K. Rowling type. And even if Justin Bieber’s memoir fails to crack the bestsellers list, HarperCollins still knows that it will sell in quantities great enough that it will benefit from economies of scale that make each copy cheaper to produce.

Publishers may love the combination of a celebrity’s name and a ghostwriter’s professionalism, but writers and readers do not. One writer we contacted who collaborates on nonfiction described ghostwriting as “repulsive.” Journalist and author Jack Hitt, writing in the New York Times Magazine in 1997, lamented ghostwritten books about such luminaries as O.J. Simpson’s former girlfriend and how they represent a publishing industry focused solely on entertainment without a thought for education. Readers who found the name of a ghostwriter buried in the acknowledgements of Lean In asked why she didn’t follow Sheryl Sandberg’s advice and demand credit as the real author.

Sally Collings noted that while many of her clients understand and accept the ghostwriter’s role, others do not. In her words:

“One of the first books I worked on, the author said, ‘I don’t want to work with a ghostwriter. If I do, I’ll feel like model. Like I can’t string a sentence together.’ He was a brain surgeon.”

The practice appears especially dishonest when it comes to ghostwriting fiction. Joel Hochman of Arbor Books estimates that 35% of his publishing services business is for fiction. “It’s like a Hollywood producer with a concept putting together a team to produce something,” he told us. “Their satisfaction comes from being the originator of the idea even if many changes are made.” And, in fact, Arbor Books lists Oscar and Emmy nominated Hollywood producers as clients.

A number of bestselling authors, such as James Patterson and Tom Clancy, have also treated their name as a brand by passing off the concept for their next sequel to a ghostwriter. Or been kept alive in the literary world after their death by ghostwriters. A few who realize the game have demanded refunds or complained about a dip in quality, but most readers buy copies obliviously. Which raises the question, why not replace all bylines with a celebrity or brand name?

The Death of the Author

In the early to mid 1900s, the majority of books read by American children were the product of one man.

The man was Edward Stratemeyer, and he is credited with being the first to give American children what they want – not books of moral instruction disguised as stories, but mystery novels as full of excitement and adventure as the adult dime novels that children read on the sly at the time.

Stratemeyer began his career by writing The Rover Boys, a series about the adventures of three prankster brothers who attend a military academy. Rather than settle into a quiet life of writing mystery novels, however, Stratemeyer sought to build an empire in the children’s book industry.

As a New Yorker article on Stratemeyer relates, he perfected the production of children’s books like Henry Ford perfected the production of automobiles. He developed more and more mystery series, including the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew – some of the most beloved children’s series of all time – and wrote under pseudonyms so that he could sell them to different publishers and not dilute his brand. When he could no longer write all the stories himself, Stratemeyer, who first realized his literary potential when the novelist Horatio Alger asked him to finish several manuscripts in exchange for royalties, simply hired ghostwriters.

An illustration from the Nancy Drew series

Stratemeyer would send off a synopsis to a ghostwriter and receive a manuscript several months later. Each series sold under a pseudonym. To better manage his ghostwriters, Stratemeyer developed a clear format for each book with rules such as that each chapter must end with a cliffhanger. The formula began to incorporate best practices for commercial success as well as writing. As sales of The Rover Boysslowed when the characters married, Stratemeyer decided that characters should never age. For promotion purposes, each book also started with a recap of prior books and ended with a preview of the next one. Stratemeyer also learned to release the first 3 books of a series at the same time to test its commercial viability.

Stratemeyer’s writing syndicate produced hundreds of books in multiple popular series that dominated the market. It wasn’t until the late 1970s, when a trial over the copyright to the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys books made details of theStratemeyer Syndicate public, that Americans realized one man was responsible for so much.

The “assembly-line” model Stratemeyer developed represents the logical end point of ghostwriting – moving the writer from a position of agency to a cog in a factory that efficiently churns out books according to a proven formula and marketing strategy. So far, the model seems to be mainly adopted in children’s series, but a number of successful adult authors have done the same. More recent thrillers by Tom Clancy, for example, have the name of a “co-author” on the cover. Similarly, an Arizona Republic article notes of James Patterson, author of a bestselling adult mystery series:

James Patterson had eight of the 100 most popular books of 2006, according to USA Today, and is scheduled to release six novels this year – that’s one every two months. The majority of his books are written by “co-authors” who take a detailed outline and flesh it out, then turn it back to Patterson for edits.

Another option for publishers looking to use ghostwriting to maximize the marketing potential of a book is to simply attach a celebrity’s name to any ghostwritten book. An article on ghostwriting in the UK notes a publisher who did exactly that – hiring a novelist to write a fictional book that takes place in the fashion world and then attaching the name of supermodel Naomi Campbell as the author. There was no collaboration between Campbell and writer Caroline Upcher, who said of the project, “The idea was to buy the name.” The Swan by Naomi Campbell has three and a half stars on Amazon.

As publishers look for ways to boost sales, these models could represent a future in which publishers buy celebrity names to attach to ghostwritten books the same way the fashion industry promotes clothing lines under the name of a celebrity who had little to no collaboration with the anonymous designers. Or in which ghostwriters toil away on formulaic concepts sold under the brand name of a previously successful author or successful pseudonym. As one article on the industry notes, a children’s book ghostwritten for a famous former model has already been nominated for the British Book Awards, shortly after her ghostwritten adult novel “outsold the entire Booker shortlist combined.”

The Case for Ghostwriting

Hiring ghostwriters and drafting nondisclosure agreements can certainly feel deceitful. But there is a case to be made that people should give up their romanticized views of authorship and accept its benefits.

“I think the idea of an isolated writer drinking whiskey in a garret and not coming out until he’s finished a book is a notion that doesn’t exist anymore,” Joel Hochman of Arbor Books told us. Like others on the business side, he responded to our question of what is owed to the readers by putting a name on the cover by saying, “It’s a product.” There may be a cult of personality around authors, but in the end, people are buying a story.

These publishers point out that writing is always a team effort. Jay Leno does not write his own jokes and a team of writers work on sitcom scripts. Even if books have been a more independent pursuit, every writer depends on the help of an editor whose impact on the book – cutting large sections, reorganizing, suggestions plot changes – can be substantial. Researchers are also a regular part of writing a book in both fiction and nonfiction. Ghostwriting may be an extreme case, but every book is a team effort and few writers are responsible for every single word and idea in their books. Is it more deceitful to name someone who did none of the writing an author or to give so much credit to the author in the first place?

A major benefit of ghostwriting is that it allows stories to be told that would not otherwise. Few major public figures could write books themselves – their stories are only published because professionals step in to write them down. Even if the existence of multiple Justin Bieber memoirs does not feel like a service to the publishing world, it at least helps the bottom lines of the same publishers taking a chance on the next David Mitchell or Cormac McCarthy.

It is also an open question whether ghostwriting denigrates the actual writers or celebrates their skill. Nondisclosure agreements and cryptic mentions in the acknowledgements are not signs of respect. But established ghostwriters are recognized as skilled professionals. And while ghostwriters often get asked to write at below a living wage, ghostwriting can also be one of the few ways to make a good salary writing full-time short of being a perennial bestseller.

It can also be quite enjoyable. William Novak described himself as “spoiled” by all the “wonderful people [he’s] worked with.” Michael D’Orso, who dislikes the term ghostwriter but collaborates with major figures, described in an article how “you can’t be more alive than when you’re climbing into other lives in other worlds.” Sally Collings told us that ghostwriting allows her to focus on the writing and editing part that she enjoys without having to deal with the marketing aspects that she does not. “People often ask when I will write my own book again,” she told us. “I feel like I do all the time. I have a secret sense of ownership.”

Is Ghostwriting on the Rise?

In an industry whose entire premise is secrecy, it’s hard to say whether ghostwriting is on the rise. Whether called ghostwriting or not, the idea is certainly not new. Mark Twain, who edited and published the memoir of Ulysses S. Grant, is said to have ghostwritten much of it as well. Hired hands have crafted busy leaders’ correspondence and public remarks for centuries. And we’d be hard pressed to say when science and engineering professors last wrote the majority of their papers. But as far as we can tell, the size of the industry is stable at the top but has surged at the bottom.

The demand for ghostwriting has increased simply because more content is being produced. With the advent of the Internet, the large numbers of businesses and blogs seeking content to draw eyeballs has led to the rise of “content mills” where ghostwriters work for anywhere from $25 per short article to five cents per word. Or less.

Within book publishing, the decreasing costs of producing books thanks to digital tools and “print on demand,” as well as the presence of Amazon, which makes it easier for customers to find books published without fanfare or distribution around the country, has led to new entrants into publishing and many more books being produced. Jerrold Jenkins, president of a publishing services firm, told us that since the late 80s, the share of books published every year by smaller, independent presses and self-publishers has increased from 10% to 80%. And with this increase in production, the number of ghostwritten works has increased.

Thanks to the lowered costs of book publishing, many of the books produced by these smaller presses do not intend to turn a profit. For some clients, a book is a vanity project. “Books have become a new toy,” we were told. “Instead of buying a Lamborghini, you have a book produced.” Others want private books written for the benefit of friends and family – perhaps about the life of a deceased family member. In business, the book can be a marketing tool. Executives may have a book ghostwritten about their career or business principles in order to be introduced as “the author of…” and boost their professional standing. For companies that commission ghostwritten books, the book is essentially a glossy pamphlet. Jenkins told us:

“One book we did on lean manufacturing was for a $80 million company whose average contract is worth half a million dollars. Our fee was $120,000 and I said that this was large. The client responded that they hold seminars and give the book to everyone there. And if they get two clients as a result… He called it ‘their brochure.’”

Insiders in the ghostwriting industry, however, don’t believe that ghostwriting is on the rise among major publishers. Karl Weber, who has been on both the writing and editing/publishing side, reflected: “It’s hard to say whether more people are using ghostwriters these days or whether the practice has simply ‘come out of the closet’” as more ghostwriters are acknowledged.

Despite the advantages we discussed earlier for publishers of celebrity books, the economic logic suggests why ghostwriting is not growing.

Publishers appreciate the importance of name recognition and obsess over marketing more than an outsider might think, but they also realize that it isn’t everything. Karl Weber conceded that celebrity memoirs are often more lucrative, but cautioned that “the results are unpredictable.” Just as William Novak refuses to ghostwrite for someone without a great story, Weber noted that fame alone won’t sell a book. A great story, new insights, and skilled writing are still prerequisites. Novak compared the big advances publishers pay for celebrity books to buying a hot stock. Weber extrapolated:

“Fads play a role in the size of advance offered. Rock memoirs were generally viewed as ho-hum until 2010 when Keith Richard’s LIFE became a critical and popular smash–and since then, memoirs by other 60s rock icons have been considered hot properties.”

Fame helps sell books, but the advances paid to big names eats into the profits that come from people buying the book just for the name. Weber estimated that the royalty advances paid to celebrities and public figures is “earned out” less than half the time.3 Although riding the wave of a celebrity’s popularity is tempting, it’s also risky to give an advance for a celebrity story the same size of those given to proven bestsellers like Stephen King.

So while memoirs of the famous and powerful appeal to publishers as a quick way to buy a hit, they are not certain moneymakers tempting the industry away from investing in professional authors. Rather, they seem to be a stable part of the publishing industry that produces works both highbrow (presidential memoir) and lowbrow (reality TV star memoir).

The Author’s Pedestal

“You stand in front of a group of author-struck fans and pretend you don’t put your pants on one leg at a time like everyone else.”

There just seems to be something special about how we treat books and authors. We praise Obama’s speeches rather than his speechwriters and we debate how funny late night hosts are while knowing full well that a writing room is responsible for their jokes. But when it comes to books, we’re angry when we hear that there is someone behind the curtain.

Some writers seem to worry that publishing houses’ increasing demands that writers market themselves will lead to all authors either becoming celebrities or being replaced by them. But the way readers and publishing houses treat ghostwriting shows that this fear is misguided.

Ghostwriting firms we spoke with insisted that a book is just a product – and a team effort that makes images of writers isolating themselves until they’ve written a book seem outdated. But there still are writers who refuse to own a phone and emerge with a new work unexpectedly. And they produce the most celebrated books that a formulaic approach could never produce.

There’s also a reason ghostwriting firms consider nondisclosure agreements standard. They know that readers don’t want the illusion to be ruined. Even William Novak, who publishers have been known to brag of getting to ghostwrite a memoir, is expected to stay quietly out of the way when his books come out.

It seems fitting that the formulaic approach of ghostwritten stories developed by Edward Stratemeyer has mostly failed to spread beyond children’s books. Readers are too attached to their romanticized view of writers. When a UK publisher took the bold step of attaching a celebrity’s name to a novel written by a ghostwriter, fans revolted when the stratagem was discovered. Ghostwritten books are a well established part of the publishing industry. But don’t tell readers that.

1The word “advance” is actually misleading. Authors often receive 25% of the advance on signing the deal, and an additional 25% for hitting milestones up to the completion of the book.

2 Romney originally hired a ghostwriter, but reportedly decided to write it himself with the help of a research assistant.

3This doesn’t mean that the publisher loses money, as they structure the deal so they can still make money if the royalties are less than the advance, but it does mean that the megahits that pad executives’ salaries and subsidize less successful books are rare.